Furniture designers have long sought ways in which to improve the ergonomic quality of chairs, particularly those which are used for relatively long continuous time periods. One example type of chair that qualifies for this type of use is an office chair, though several other varieties of chairs may also be used for long continuous periods. Often times, such chairs are provided with numerous adjustment capabilities in order to enable a certain extent of customizability and conformability to the physical attributes of the particular user. Most typically, however, such chairs nevertheless provide only a static seating environment, in which the chair provides substantially all of the support necessary to maintain the user in a stable, upright position.
The static seating relationship offered by typical chairs can result in detrimental effects to the user. For example, the support provided by the chair induces the user to refrain from using muscles that are otherwise necessary in maintaining an upright orientation. Moreover, the static seating arrangement can lead to a degradation of correct upright posture, which then potentially leads to muscle soreness and fatigue, particularly for the muscles controlling vertebral orientation.
It has been discovered that the use of inflatable balloons, such as exercise balls, fitness balls, and the like, as seating devices causes the users to utilize core muscles required in maintaining an upright posture. The use of such muscles throughout the sitting period maintains the strength of such muscles, while not overburdening muscles which wouldn't otherwise be so directly involved. This effect is most dramatically realized in the use of such inflatable balloons alone, as the user is required to continuously maintain a balanced position upon the balloon because the balloon does not itself provide a balanced and “static” seating condition. This constant balancing effort by the user can be referred to as a “dynamic” seating condition.
Some efforts have been directed to combining the use of an inflatable balloon with a more conventional chair, such as an office chair. For example, several designs have been proposed which essentially replace the substantially horizontal seat element of a chair with an exercise ball which is then fitted and secured in a static condition to a chair frame. While such designs seek to introduce the benefits of dynamic seating to a conventional chair configuration, the fixation of the exercise ball in a static condition within a chair frame substantially mitigates the benefits derived from dynamic seating.
Accordingly, there exists a need to provide an apparatus that is capable of providing both dynamic and static seating conditions.
There is also a need to provide a chair apparatus which facilitates both dynamic and static seating conditions, and is adjustable to be used comfortably and correctly by users of various size.